Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Miser in the Coffin

Father's Day is still about 20 days away, and the rotten old miser zombie ghost in today's post isn't coming back from the dead Creepshow-style for his Father's Day cake either, nope-- he wants his money! This is a typically fun 'n spooky entry from the consistantly batshit bonkerama that was Superior Comics (fyi: I LOVE page 4!) From the Jan. '53 issue of Journey into Fear #11.

I was thinking about posting a bunch of Inger Shop stuff this month, so if this sounds like a good idea to you let us know... it's actually been awhile since we cracked open their crummily printed pages and gave these tales a good, long analytical looksie.

I LOVE the wraith's Lana Turner pose as he gets out of the grave on page four. The last panel on page 6 is pretty scary though!! These posts so get me through the last little bit of my desk shift, catching up on old ones... thanks for posting!

(First off, computer's been "on the fritz" since last Tuesday; that's Tuesday of last week!)

My reactions: Whwn I read this, I first off thought about a miser in a simular situation. This guy, however, decides to have his money hidden in the attic. When his wife or housekeeper, I forget who hears this, she remarks that the fool should have put it in the basement!

Then I thought about an episode of the 1980's U.S. Saturday morning cartoon "The Real Ghostbusters" about a miserly ghost so angry about his whole fortune being taken in taxes by the government that he steals a entire state lottery prize to get it back!

Last of all, while I was composing this, I thought about another old miser who is told before he is dead that he *can not only get into Heaven; he can take something with him*. He, of course, takes his gold only to be questioned as why he only wanted to take paving stones!

Wow. I just read this and spent the whole story trying to frame exactly what it was I really disliked about the art. Then I read all of these comments. Now I think maybe I should just leave well enough alone.

Well, maybe I will point out how dissatisfied I am at the usual laziness I see when these illustrators are trying to articulate a stormy sky with desultory red lightning bolts that have zero to do with the light in the rest of the panel. I guess I should be happy in those rare times the negative space was used at all.

All that said, there really was a unique, bright, day-for-night kind of vibe here, and the faces were moody and cool. Thanks for making me take a second look at these panels, everybody.

Most Iger Shop art for Superior Pub seems to all look identical, concerning this story I think everyone is simply digging on the slight cartoonishness added to their usual recognizable style, Mr C... gives it a more bizarre, surreal, fun edge. I mentioned page 4 in particular, mostly because those graveyard panels look like something you'd see made out of cardboard and construction paper in a gradeschool play, or for that matter, Plan 9 from Outer Space.

"...the capital of online comic book horrors... saying "Not the best story THOIA has run" is a bit like saying "one of Beethoven's lesser symphonies!"---Quasar Dragon

"...the object of all horror chicks' wet dreams... a comixkaze of awesome!"---Killer Kittens

"...an online repository of vintage comic fear fare where individual stories from long out-of-print issues are posted in high resolution, page by page. For a fan of EC, Atlas and other Silver Age-era comic companies, it is pure heaven (and hell)..."---Bryan Reesman (Attention Deficit Delirium)